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Filter run times

I recently read a post that gave a great reason (for those whose electric rates are the same all day and night) to break up the times you run your pump into two sections. It makes sense that there would be less time the pool is uncirculated if I run the pump from 6-11 am and again at 6-11 pm instead of just 10-8. Still 10 hours of run time, just less time the pool is sitting still.

So, my only question is does it matter when you are planning to swim? Do you need the pump running just before go swimming to mix everything up good? Or is it ok to just jump in at 4 in the afternoon even though the pump hasn't run in 5 hours? Thanks!

Re: Filter run times

To me, the most critical time to circualate the water is when the sun is destroying the chlorine the fastest. This is usually during the early afternoon so you might want to consider at least an 11-4 run time so as to keep the chlorine at a more uniform level throughout the pool. If you have automated chlorination, then this will help keep the level constant as well. BBB is a little tougher. This run time might help with the swim time circulation as well which I think is a good idea.

Also, after the sun goes down, circulation is probably less important since there is no UV reducing the FC. At this point, the only thing using up chlorine is algae and the occasional bacterium. So it is unlikely that you would get a low chlorine spot in the pool overnight unless of course you are fighting algae and then nighttime running becomes more important. The upside to the nighttime run, is that it does tend to keep the pool cleaner because the skimmers are running in a more distributed fashion.

BTW, I schedule my runs to end right after sun down so the pool is prepared for the night. But I also have solar and want to take advantage of all the heat and I also have a SWG so I like to add chlorine as it disappears.

Re: Filter run times

I'm convinced! You are right. My pool gets all sunlight, all afternoon so it does need to run then. Also, when we went swimming yesterday afternoon the pump had not been running and there were tons of bugs in the pool that I had to scoop out before we could go in. Before, the pump had always been running before we went swimming and the skimmer had caught all those bugs. So, I'm going back out to readjust the timer back to afternoon hours. Thanks again!

Re: Filter run times

I have mine scheduled to run through the early evening, so it will be on for a couple hours after the time I usually add my bleach.

Originally Posted by mas985

The upside to the nighttime run, is that it does tend to keep the pool cleaner because the skimmers are running in a more distributed fashion.

Mark, can you explain what you mean by "a more distributed fashion"? Thanks...
--paulr

Even though the total run time might be the same for one cycle vs two, the off time is different in that the one cycle is twice as long as each off time in the two cycle case. So for one cycle, there is more time for stuff to make it to the bottom of the pool before the skimmers start running again. This is probably a minimal effect and something I wouldn't adjust a schedule around. Again, I think it is far more important to run at least during the time the pool gets the most sunlight.